>> Monday, April 29, 2013

By Myds
Supnad

BUGALLON, Pangasinan -- Two more V150
armored vehicles and additional army troops were deployed here and other parts
of the province to prevent bloodshed following the grenade attack on the house
of mayor Rodrigo Orduna due to reported political rivalry.

Major Gen. Gregorio
Pio Catapang, Jr., commandeer of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division, whose
area of jurisdiction is Region 1 and 3, bared this Thursday sayinghe ordered this to
maintain peace. as elections are drawing near.

General Catapang’s
action came after gunmen hurled Wednesday morning a grenade into the
house of Orduna, the whistle blower who accused Gov. Amado Espino of
accumulating allegedly hundreds of millions of pesos from the illegal game
jueteng.

Orduna’s expose
triggered the filing of a plunder case against Espino in what he described as
lack of merit and politically motivated to destroy his credibility.

Espino said he also
wanted the Philippine National Police to immediately
conduct a thorough and independent investigation of the grenade
blast so the truth will come out.

Espino and Orduna were
former political allies but their relationship turned sour, after Orduna allied
himself with gubernatorial candidate Hernani Braganza, a political rival of
Espino.

On the other hand,
Espino’s ally also filed a plunder case against Braganza.

The grenade exploded
in front of the door of Orduna’s house, but no one was hurt.

Espino said
Pangasinan had been known as a peaceful province with
little track record of political violence for decades.

With the incident,
some mayors and provincial officials of Pangasinan recently circulated a signed
manifest seeking the ouster of acting provincial police director Marlou Chan,
an intelligence expert, on charges of partisan politics and incompetence at
preventing and solving an increasing number of unsolved
shooting incidents in the province since he was assigned here.

Chan denied he
had been partisan.

Local LP stalwarts
said had deplored the grenade attack a “deplorable act” that police must probe.

No one was hurt in the
blast which police said damaged the front door, including the gutter wall, in
the house of Orduña in the town proper.

Police said the
grenade was lobbed at 1:35 a.m.

Chan,said they were still investigating the
incident and could not comment yet on the possible motive behind it.

Chan said they now
have to secure the family of Orduña who is running for vice mayor in the May 13
polls.

The mayor refused to
be interviewed on the grenade blast.

Orduña, a
self-confessed jueteng operator, hogged the headlines when he filed a plunder
case at the Office of Ombudsman against re-electionist Gov. Amado Espino Jr.
for allegedly receiving about P900 million in jueteng payola.

Espino has denied the
allegations. He and Orduña used to be long-time political allies until the
mayor joined LP.

“We are asking the authorities to investigate
this deplorable act and arrest whoever is behind the attack,” said former vice
governor Oscar Lambino, spokesman and vice chairman of the local LP.

Alaminos City Mayor
Hernani Braganza, the LP’s gubernatorial candidate, called on the police to
beef up security for Orduña and increase police visibility in Bugallon and
other election hotspots in the province.

Bugallon is listed as
one of the 14 priority areas of concern in the May 13 polls due to intense
political rivalry.

“The attack on Mayor
Orduña deals a serious blow to efforts to ensure safe and fair elections in
Pangasinan. Our law enforcement agencies should conduct more checkpoints and
increase police visibility to prevent the outbreak of election violence,” he
said.

Espino, for his part,
also asked the police to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into
the grenade blast.

An independent and
non-partisan probe of the grenade blast would be the first decisive step to
keep it that way, he said.

“I don’t want anybody
to stage-manage violent acts that make it appear that politics has anything to
do with crimes in my province,” he said.

LAOAG CITY -- Two disqualification cases were
filed the Wednesday against Ilocos Sur congressional bet Ronald Singson before
the Commission on Elections.

In a petition, lawyer
Bertrand Baterina, Singson’s rival in the May 13 polls, said under Section 12
of the Omnibus Election Code, the former lawmaker is not qualified to seek a
congressional seat because of his conviction for drug trafficking in Hong Kong
in February 2011.

Baterina, who is
running under the Liberal Party, said Singson should be barred from seeking an
elective post within five years “from the service of sentence on or about
January 2012 or until January 2017.”

“The crime of drug
trafficking is a crime involving moral turpitude which, under Section 12 of the
Omnibus Election Code, provides that a person convicted by final judgment of a
crime involving moral turpitude is disqualified as a candidate or to hold a
public office,” he added.

Singson was dropped
from the roster of the incumbent House of Representatives following his
conviction in Hong Kong.

In the second
disqualification case, Baterina accused Singson of violating Republic Act 7166
or the law on synchronized national and local elections concerning the use of
police security by candidates.

Last April 20, he said
a police patrol vehicle of Vigan City filled with armed Special Weapon and
Tactics personnel allegedly served as back-up vehicle of Singson’s convoy.

DOLORES, Abra – A local leader of the Liberal
Party here was gunned down here April 20 and one of his four attackers was
arrested in a pursuit operation.

Chief Supt. Benjamin
Magalong, Cordillera police director, said investigators were still trying to
check if an old grudge motivated the killing of 32-year-old Tirso Cadangan
Talledo here of Barangay Libtec.

But he added there
were strong indications intense political rivalry in Dolores had something to
do with the attack.

Talledo, a leader of
Dolores mayoral bet David Guzman of LP, was stopped on his way home along the
Cabaroan-Libtec Road and shot at close range by four men, police said.

Investigators found 12
cartridges for .45 caliber and seven for 9-mm at the crime scene.

Police later arrested
one of Talledo’s four attackers who yielded a .45-caliber pistol, and seized
the two motorcycles used in the killing.

The suspect was
arrested in Sitio Calading, Barangay Pacac and was found in possession of a
Cal. 45 pistol with two magazines loaded with ammunition including two
motorcycles used in the shooting.

Prior to the arrest,
the victim was travelling heading towards Barangay Libtec riding on a
motorcycle driven by Jessie Alagao Caballero when they were stopped by 4 male
persons at Sitio Ukiang, Barangay Cabaruan, Dolores.

The suspects suddenly
shot the victim several times on the different parts of his body causing his
instant death while the driver was left unhurt.

LAOAG CITY -- With barely three weeks more to
go before the elections, a son of Ilocos Norte first district Rep. Rodolfo
Fariñas has withdrawn from the vice mayoral race of this city.

Accompanied by his
family and supporters, Carlos Fariñas went to the city election office Thursday
to personally withdraw his certificate of candidacy for the city’s second top
post, hoping his move would somehow ease his clan’s widening rift.

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The eastern
towns of Barlig, Natonin and Paracelis of this province were identified
by the Commission on Elections as “hot spots” as polls are drawing near.

Comelec provincial
supervisor Nicasio Jacob alerted members of the Philippine
National Police and the Philippine Army in a press conference here
saying that town here have a history of violence the past elections.

During the May 2010
elections, a PICOS machine was burned at sitio Apalis, Paracelis.

Seven men were
arrested with six guns and live rounds of ammo loaded in three vehicles with
one of the captured guns registered to Maximo Dalog.

Paracelis also carries
a history of ballot snatching through the years and delayed release of election
results.

Barlig has no
electronic signal in some parts of the town posing problems in electronic
transmission of election results.

Jacob advised
political party watchers, media, police and the military
force to accompany members of the Board of Election
Inspectors in transport of election results from
polling centers to municipal canvassing places to ensure safe
transport of printed results and PICOS machines’ memory cards
.

This, apart from
electronic transmission of results to ensure immediate transmission of election
results to national and municipal canvassing centers.

In said press
conference hosted by the Montanosa Press Club, Jacob reminded candidates to
remove oversized posters, and posters in prohibited areas, further reminding
the PNP to arrest and charge violators based on Comelec guidelines.

BAGUIO CITY – The Land Registration Authority
(LRA), Registry of Deeds here has awarded land titles to applicants who have
been waiting for it for so long.

Around 27
Administrative Patents were awarded, bulk of which were Free Patents, three
Townsite Sales Applications(TSAs) and three Certificates of Ancestral Land
Titles (CALTs) during Monday’s flag raising ceremony here at city
hall.

He was assisted by
Mayor Mauricio Domogan, Vice-Mayor Daniel Farinas and other city officials.

During the
distribution of the titles, Domogan said, ‘more titles should have been awarded
to actual occupants if the Revised City charter was not vetoed by the
president.’

‘The revised
city charter could speed-up the processing of pending Townsite Sales
Applications in the city now numbering 5,000.”

President Benigno
Aquino III vetoed the revision of the 1909 City Charter which local officials
said could have addressed numerous land problems in the city including the
boundary dispute between Baguio City and the Municipality of Tuba.

“Hopefully, we can
find a remedy for it so pending applications will be acted upon,” Domogan said

Some officials here said amending the
city charter was long overdue to conform to present situation of the city.

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – Amid bribery
charges, at least 32 candidates of the Liberal Party (LP) in the province have
dismissed as part of a disinformation campaign their supposed defection to the
camp of Gov. Amado Espino Jr.

In a statement dated
April 17, the LP bets said, “We wish to state on record that we never signed a
covenant, or any document, supporting the re-election bid of Gov. Espino.”

The denial was an
offshoot of an earlier statement from the Espino camp that 17 out of 26 LP
mayoral bets in the province had defected to Espino.

The supposed defection
prompted LP officials in the province to hold an emergency meeting and came out
with their statement.

The signatories
re-affirmed their commitment to President Aquino and the Liberal Party’s
efforts to help Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza and Arturo Lomibao win as
governor and vice governor, respectively, in the May 13 polls.

They said they believe
that Braganza is the only gubernatorial candidate who has the experience, track
record and moral fortitude needed to transform Pangasinan into a bustling
growth center and possibly, the most progressive province in the North.

They also deplored
alleged attempts by the rival camp to bribe LP candidates “just to entice them
to switch loyalty in the middle of the campaign period.”

They mentioned
re-electionist sixth district board member Ranjit Ramos Shahani as among those
working for Espino, alleging that Shahani had approached LP candidates,
offering them P100,000 each in cash and promising them development projects in
exchange for their political support.

But Shahani retorted:
“What bribery attempt? Where’s their evidence?”

Shahani admitted
though giving P100,000 to his fellow LP candidates from his personal funds
“because I am worried they may have money for their campaign but it’s very
lacking because LP has no funds.”

He said the money came
from her mother, former senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, as help for his vice
gubernatorial bid. The board member, however, did not get the LP nomination for
his vice gubernatorial plan and instead sought re-election.

“It’s not a dictation
(on who they should support), it’s consultation,” he said.

“Remember, there is a
LP-Braganza wing and LP-Shahani-Espino wing,” he said, adding that he is openly
supporting Espino although Braganza is his cousin.

“You tell Nani
(Braganza) to stop bribing decent Pangasinenses with his lies, deceit,
falsehood and character assassination,” he said.

“This is election, not
revolution,” he added.

He said Braganza is
his mother’s favorite nephew and he the favorite son, “but Espino is my
mother’s favorite governor.”

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya– Officials of
Alfonso Castañeda town this province have yet to fully account for the
municipality’s P130-million real property tax (RPT) share from last year’s
operation of the Casecnan multi-purpose and irrigation project by a American
firm.

The Commission on Audit
(COA) said the municipal government of Alfonso Castañeda has yet to settle its
expenditures from the multimillion-peso fund, contrary to claims by the town’s
officials that they have resolved their disallowed transactions with state
auditors.

In fact, COA
auditor-in-charge Rey Acosta refused to issue a certification clearing the
municipal government of its expenditures, which state auditors had disallowed
due to supposed deficiencies and questionable spending.

“We readily issue
notices of settlement if indeed those disallowed and suspended transactions
have already been resolved. But the problem is, (they have failed to comply
with) even the simplest deficiencies noted by the COA audit,” Acosta said.

COA’s finding of
alleged fund misuse against the municipal government became the basis of the
decision of Gov. Luisa Cuaresma to withhold the RPT share of Alfonso Castañeda
for the third quarter last year.

For partly hosting the
Casecnan project of US firm California Energy, Alfonso Castañeda is entitled to
receive quarterly RPT share, and for the third quarter last year, it was
expected to receive some P50 million.

Cuaresma, however,
withheld the release of the town’s RPT share unless the COA would issue a
certification clearing the town officials of alleged misspending.

The rallyists, who
were transported by municipal government vehicles all the way from the mountain
town to the capital, failed to meet Cuaresma though.

Cuaresma said she
cannot simply ignore the town’s apparent misuse of funds by allowing it “to
further recklessly spend” hard-earned taxes “without at least having an idea as
to how the previous taxes” had been utilized.

“I will be remiss in
my duties if I will turn a blind eye to the seeming lack of care in the manner
by which the (town) utilizes these taxes which we have worked long and hard to
collect,” said Cuaresma in her letter to Alfonso Castañeda Mayor Jerry
Pasigian.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya– The decomposing
bodies of four suspected treasure hunters, two of them minors, were recovered
on Tuesday or three days after they were reportedly trapped in a tunnel in
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

TUBLAY, Benguet -- An eco-tourism farm in
this town is fast becoming a popular destination among foreign
and local visitors.

Located in Acop,
Caponga, the ENCA farm, coined after spouses Enrique and Carmen Cosalan, was
established in 2006 and is managed by their daughter Marlyn.

Adventurists and
nature lovers can go trekking, camping, and be coached on organic farming.

The place is also
ideal for retreats due to its natural ecology. They say the place is relaxing
and experience nature at its best, Cosalan quipped.

Many visitors visited
the farmand learned the organic way of
farming. It has also become a venue in sharing experiences such as those who
already have acquired techniques they learned especially in other countries,
she said.

Other visitors come to
enjoy nature.

According to Cosalan,
foreigners who visitlearned about the
farm through the Lonely Planet travel guide. An organization in Washington, DC
in the United States of America also established friends of ENCA link, she
added.

“But for now we are
limiting the number of visitors. We could only accommodate 15 people at a
time,” she said.

The farm was not
spared during Typhoon Pepeng in 2009 and part of it still needs to be
rehabilitated, Cosalan said.

She disclosed efforts
are being worked outto improve and
toaccommodatemore visitors.

Cosalan said they want
to incorporate culture in the area for visitors to appreciate and ahome stay program is currently being worked
out such that from the terminal station in Baguio,visitorscould go directly to Acop.

“There are suggestions
that we cook food for visitors but we are still considering,” shesaid.

With the passage of
the Tublay Tourism Code, the local government unitis planning to step up efforts in protecting
and sustaining tourism such as the establishment of a Tourism Information
Center to guide visitors in goingtoplaces of interest in the
arealike ENCA.

The Supreme Court has cleared the military in
the alleged kidnapping and torture of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas
in May 2009 in La Paz town in Tarlac.

In a three-page
resolution released earlier this week, the SC affirmed the findings of the Court
of Appeals that there was no ample evidence to prove Roxas’ claim that soldiers
were behind her ordeal.The SC adopted the
CA’s recommendation for the dismissal of charges “against all the public
respondents who, despite the newly presented evidence by the CHR (Commission on
Human Rights), are still not shown, much less proven, to be liable or
accountable for the abduction and torture of petitioner, without prejudice,
nonetheless, to any evidence that may surface or be eventually discovered in
the future against any of them.”

It ordered law
enforcement agencies to conduct further investigation into the case, affirming
the CA report.

But the SC modified
the recommendation of the appellate court, which heard the amparo petition of
Roxas, for the provisional dismissal of the case.

The SC held that the
petition must instead be archived “pursuant to Section 20 of the Rules of the
Writ of Amparo” pending further investigation.

In February 2011, the
CHR said there was “insufficient evidence” to support Roxas’ claim that
soldiers held her in captivity and subjected her to physical and mental
maltreatment in a house in Tarlac in May 2009.

In the same
resolution, the CHR said it has received information “that indicates the
possibility that members of the NPA (New People’s Army) committed the
kidnapping and other human rights violations on Roxas.”

The military earlier
had welcomed the CHR’s findings on Roxas’ kidnapping, while the Communist Party
of the Philippines, which has direct leadership over the NPA, had denied any
involvement in the incident.

Even Justice Secretary
Leila de Lima, who chaired the CHR at the time Roxas’ case was investigated,
attested to the lack of evidence against the military in this case.

“There is no showing
or proof that the military was involved so practically military involvement was
ruled out. But there is also no categorical finding as to who did it. There is
insinuation or indication that it could be the NPA but there’s no categorical
proof, that’s why the CHR wants the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) to
pursue the investigation,” she said.

ILAGAN CITY– With barely three weeks before
the elections, a younger brother of Commission on Elections Commissioner Grace
Padaca who is running for Isabela governor has yet to be seen in the campaign
trail.

Marlo Angelo Padaca,
49, is neither in his residence in District 1, Cauayan City, hometown of the Dy
clan, nor anywhere in the province conducting his campaign sorties.

Padaca is pitted
against incumbent Gov. Faustino Dy III, his sister’s arch-rival. However,
political experts dismissed him as politically unknown unlike his sister.

Commissioner Padaca
had been expected to give a good fight against Dy until she was appointed to
the Comelec last year. She lost to Dy in the last elections by a slim margin,
spoiling what could be her third and last term as governor.

Commissioner Padaca
rose to political prominence in the 2004 elections when she defeated Dy’s elder
brother, then incumbent governor Faustino Jr., by an unprecedented 42,000-vote
margin. It was the first time the Dys lost the governorship which their family
had held for over three decades.

Today, however, the
Padaca residence has no posters or streamers on Marlo’s gubernatorial bid.

Maridel Justo,
secretary to Padaca’s eldest brother Carlito, said Marlo has just left
“somewhere.”

The boy who delivers
newspapers to the Padacas said he was told that Marlo is in Mindoro.

“He (Marlo) is not
campaigning; maybe he realized the futility of running against Dy,” said
63-year-old businesswoman Soccoro Mananquil.

Mananquil added though
that should Marlo fight it out, she would help him in his campaign.

A Management graduate,
Marlo, lost in the barangay elections in November 2010.

There were
speculations that his sister would substitute for him at the last minute last
December, but this did not happen.

Marlo filed his
candidacy for governor under the Aksyon Demokratiko party founded by the late
senator Raul Roco.

BAGUIO CITY -- If this looks and sounds more
of an opinion piece than a straight news item, it’s so intended, to catch your
attention and convince you to help the city council lobby for what it pushed
last Monday.

By
unanimous vote and “on motion of all and seconded by all”, the city council,
acting with a deep sense of urgency, adopted a resolution authored by city
councilor Peter Fianza for the setting up of district and regional offices of
the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in the Cordillera and in
the Autonomous Region in Mindanao to serve thousands of indigent and
seriously ill patients in the two regions.

As councilor Fianza
explained, the PCSO recently decentralized the processing and approval of fund
assistance applications to cash-strapped patients, from its office at the Lung
Center along E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City to the district and regional
offices.

While
the decentralization brings closer PCSO’s services to the people, it serves
better the needs of other regions than those of the people of the Cordillera
and the Autonomous Region in Mindanao.

The
poorest regions in the country notwithstanding their wealth in natural
resource, the Cordillera and the Autonomous Region in Mindanao are the
only two among the 17 regions in the country that do not have a district or
regional office of the PCSO.

Residents
of the two regions now have to go to the nearest regions with district or
regional offices. Patients coming from the Cordillera now have to apply for
medical support at the PCSO Region 1 office in Urdaneta, Pangasinan which
is already swamped by patients coming from the Ilocos.

Curiously,
some regions have more than one district or regional offices. Region 3 has
four, in Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. So does the Bicol Region,
whose four offices are located in Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Norte and
Camarines Sur.

For
the Cordillera, Fianza asked that a regional office be established in Baguio and
a district set up in other parts of the region. He noted it would be practical
to have an office in the city as Baguio serves many patients from other parts
of Luzon, it being the top medical center north of Metro-Manila.

A case in point, he
pointed out, is the continuously increasing number of end-stage kidney failure
patients from within and outside the Cordillera being served by the Baguio
General Hospital and Medical Center because of its open policy, the quality of
its service and its lower rates.

As of last January,
the number of kidney patients being treated twice or thrice-a-week at the BGHMC
was 169. By March, the figure increased to 179, a trend which is surely
to continue.

Despite their huge
number, dialysis patients being served by the BGHMC used to avail of PCS0
support three to four times a year when the processing for applications was
still centralized at its office in Quezon City.

At the Urdaneta
office, the quota for kidney patients coming from the BGHMC was initially three
per week. Acting on the clamor of patients, the quota was increased to four a
week. If not increased, BGHMC patients would be able to avail of PCSO support
only once a year.

Fianza’s
resolution will be transmitted to PCSO chair Margarita Juico and the PCSO board
of directors for their appropriate action, with copies furnished President
Aquino and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman.

Likewise,
the resolution will be transmitted to the regional government of the Autonomous
Region in Mindanao, with the request for it to adopt a similar resolution.

City mayor Mauricio
Domogan also recently wrote PCSO chair Juico to air the plight of patients from
within and outside the Cordillera because of the reduced medical support
from the government’s humanitarian arm as a result of its decentralized
operations.

Readers of this paper
who have connections to top national government agencies or get the
chance to talk to senatorial candidates in the May polls, are urged to ask them
to help lobby for the opening of regional and district offices of the PCSO here
and in the Autonomous Region of Mindanao.

Likewise, local
government units in the Cordillera can follow suit with similar resolutions.

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- Vice Mayor
and mayoral candidate Richard Yodong wants the proposed
windfarm in this tourist town to undergo geologic tests to
determine effects of the wind turbines vis a vis water tables so local
folks could be fully appraised of the matter before it is implemented.

Yodong bared this in a
press conference hosted by the Montanosa Press Club in the capital town of
Bontoc.

The Manila based-
Philcarbon wants to construct the windfarm.

Residents have been
asking how the project would affectsprings and watersheds.

Hundreds of
households here in the central and northern barangays of
Sagada and eastern and central Besao source their
domestic and irrigation water from water springs cradled by the
Pilaw-Langsayan ridge where locates the proposed site to build the
windfarm.

At least 10 wind
turbines measuring 80 feet are projected to be installed along the ridge with
an area of 20 meters by 20 meters and rotor blades measuring some 70
meters in length.

No studies have been
presented to the public by Philcarbon even as hydrology tests
are being asked by some residents of whether this has been
conducted or not.

During thepress conference, Gwen Longid, speaking
for Katribu nominee Beverly Longid said free prior and informed
consent(FPIC) is an essential requirement in the proposed
windfarm project.

Longid noted that
FPIC process in its entirety should be fully facilitated to let people be
consulted and informed on what the project is all about and thus have an
informed decision on whether the project proceed or not.

Longid said the
conduct of FPIC process is a major call of KATRIBU in its platform
and program to let indigenous peoples be consulted and informed on
projects being proposed and implemented in their own territories.

Meantime,
mayoral candidate Geraldo Lamaton of Barlig said he wants the watersheds
of Barlig to stay protected taking note of the fact that Barlig
has profuse supply of water due to its mossy forests.

Lamaton said
Barlig also supplies the capital town of adjacent Bontoc with water
and noted that pipes leading to Bontoc are leaking and need maintenance.